By Lily Zhou
April 19, 2023 Updated: April 20, 2023
Undated file photo of former Conservative Party leader, MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Media)
The UK government was
urged on April 19 to shut Chinese police outposts in the country after it was
reported that one of the stations’ hosts has been linked to two former
Conservative prime ministers.
Earlier this week, the
FBI arrested two people in connection with a similar outpost in New York.
Responding to questioning
by members of Parliament, Policing Minister Chris Philp said that UK police are
still investigating the matter and all political parties should be alert about
hostile state infiltrations.
All Eat App, a food
delivery platform registered in Croydon in east London, is at one of the
addresses in the UK that were listed as Chinese “overseas police service
stations.”
Research by human rights
NGO Safeguard Defenders (pdf) has identified 102 of such unofficial
police outposts across 53 countries. Chinese officials have claimed the
stations are set up to help overseas Chinese renew their documents,
but Safeguard Defenders found evidence that some of the stations had been
involved in the repatriation of alleged criminals outside of normal
channels.
Alleged
UFWD and Tory Links
According to The Times of London, Lin Ruiyou, director
of All Eat App and UK Fujianese association, has attended
conferences and political events in China that are connected to the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP)’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).
The report also said he
was appointed the vice chairman of Cities of London and Westminster
Conservative Association (CLWCA) Chinese Group in 2019.
According to the paper,
the CLWCA hosts annual dinners for Chinese diplomats including the ambassador
and senior British politicians, raising “thousands of pounds” for the local
Conservative party.
The Times published two
photos, in one of which Lin posed with then-Prime Minister Theresa May and
another he posed with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Given the nature of
these allegations, last year we immediately reported the matter to the security
services,” a spokesman for CLWCA said in a statement. “Mr. Lin is no longer a
member of CLWCA.”
In an interview
with YesTV Daily published in November 2022,
Lin denied working for the Chinese regime, police, or the CCP, saying he was
volunteering to help Chinese expats renew driver’s licenses during the COVID-19
pandemic when travel was severely restricted.
The 41-year-old
Chinese-born British citizen also denied working for UFWD, arguing that dining
and taking photos with friends who work for the Chinese regime doesn’t mean he
works for the UFWD.
He acknowledged having
been in photos with British politicians, but rejected trying to influence
British politics.
Police
Investigation Ongoing
Safeguard Defenders has
identified two service stations in London and Glasgow, in addition to All
Eat App. The phone number for the Glasgow station is coupled with an
address belonging to a Chinese restaurant while the other London station shared
an address with a Hendon estate agent.
The Metropolitan Police
and Police Scotland confirmed last year that they were looking into the
matter.
“There is a live
investigation by the law enforcement community into this matter,” said Philp,
who declined to comment when asked about accusations against Lin.
Standing in for Security
Minister Tom Tugendhat, who was on a trip in Northern Ireland, Philp
said the Times’ report is “of great concern.”
Commenting on concern
that the police outposts could be used to intimidate dissidents, the minister
said the protection of people in the UK is “of the utmost importance.”
“Any attempt to coerce,
intimidate, or illegally repatriate any individual will not be tolerated,” he
said.
“This egregious activity
is part of a wider trend of authoritarian governments, not just China, but
others as well, perpetrating transnational repression in an effort to silence
their critics overseas, undermine democracy and the rule of law and further
their own narrow geopolitical interests.”
The minister said the UK
takes a “proactive approach” in protecting those who are identified to be at
heightened risk.
Labour’s shadow home
secretary Yvette Cooper questioned the extent of Lin’s involvement with the
Conservative Party and government ministers.
In response, Philp
said, “All political parties need to be alert to the danger that
representatives of hostile states seek to infiltrate or influence their
activities.”
Former Conservative Party
leader Iain Duncan Smith urged the government shut down the stations.
“We know that they are
bringing Chinese dissidents in. They are confronting them with videos of their
families, threatening their families in front of them if they don’t cooperate
and leave and go back to China. We know that. The security services have warned
the government about that. The question really here today is why in heaven’s
name haven’t we acted alongside the Americans, even the Dutch, and shut these stations
down and kick those people out of the country?” he said.
Philp said the activity
Duncan Smith described is “unacceptable” and “must and will be stopped,” and
Tugendhat will provide an update as soon as he can.
He also appeared to
suggest the stations are no longer in operation after Foreign Affairs Committee
chair Alicia Kearns said four illegal police stations are known to be operating
in the UK, including one in Belfast.
“She asserted in her
question that these locations were still operating. She is making, if I may
say, an assumption in making that assertion, not an assumption I’m going to
comment on because it is a matter of a live investigation,” Philp said.
Last year, the Irish and Dutch governments
ordered the closure of the stations in their countries.
The FBI on April 17 arrested two people on charges of
operating a secret police station in New York City on behalf of China’s regime.
Prosecutors said the pair conspired to work as CCP agents and took the regime’s
orders to track down and silence Chinese dissidents living in the United
States.
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